Creative collection Meet talented visual artist Emma Itzstein
IN TIMES OF TURMOIL, ARTIST EMMA ITZSTEIN FINDS COMFORT IN THE PAINTING PROCESS
Working out of a small studio in the backyard of her East Geelong home, visual artist Emma Itzstein offloads her worries and thoughts onto a canvas with the stroke of a brush. “My work is really quite expressionist and messy, and I just let loose,” says the painter, totally in her element. Artistic since birth, Emma says painting was probably her calling all along – she just hadn’t realised.
The Western Australian native spent six years at university in Perth studying law and communications, before first going to work at a design agency, and then in publishing. “I would focus on my artwork in the breaks, mainly working on unique-state printmaking, but it was sporadic,” explains Emma.
Then, four years ago, she relocated more than halfway across the country to the Victorian town of Geelong to support her partner, a move which prompted a whole new creative direction. “The change of geography gave me that opportunity to embark on something new with a fresh start,” says Emma. “I was going through a period of my life where I was suffering a bit of anxiety, and painting was a great way to navigate that and really express myself from within.”
Last year, Emma held her first solo exhibition at Melbourne’s Brunswick Street Gallery, aptly titled ‘Yin’ – and it was entirely inspired by her experience of living through anxiety. “It was the process of learning how to meditate and finding stillness in an erratic period of my life,” the artist explains of the collection of work, which features colourful botanicals as a symbol of mindfulness.
“More recently, I’ve found my inspiration externally – light and wind and all of nature’s forces,” says Emma, who has begun selling prints of her original works online. “People find my work peaceful, which at first I just couldn’t believe – they are full of movement and texture, but the contradiction is that my work seems to bring a sense of peace.”
With big dreams of trying her artistic hand at portraiture and making the Archibald Prize finalists list, Emma’s next move is a show with fellow Geelong artists Amy Wright and Liz Wickramasinghe at the Ceres Temperance Hall in Victoria, from September 12. “I’d like to continue to make work that brings joy and a sense of tranquillity,” she says. “I think that’s all you can hope for – that someone connects with your work on an emotional level.”
“IT’S THAT FREEING OF EXPRESSION AND THE MARK MAKING AND THE MOVEMENT THAT I WAS REALLY CRAVING” ~ Emma